The Change
by HanaImakura
Summary: This is sort of a little scary story starring Raggedy Ann and Andy. Wish me luck surviving the night once I get done writing this and my new Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls arrive!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A Taste of The Unknown

The soft rays of sunlight were creeping slowly through the window, illuminating the

nursery in a sort of ethereal light. As usual, these rays eventually brightened up the grins of

Marcella's two favorite dolls- Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy. As they sat together up on the

toy shelf directly across from the window, they both thought to themselves in silence. Ann was

thinking of how beautiful the day would become and how nice it would be if Marcella could

take them out on a picnic in the garden later that afternoon. Andy leaned a little more on

Ann's shoulder and was contemplating the fact that the light seemed just a little _too_ beautiful.

He slowly looked up at Raggedy Ann and said "Ann, don't you think the morning seems

kind of… I don't know… Different?". Ann was silent for another moment, as she was usually the

most contemplative of all of the dolls. She turned her head to meet Raggedy Andy's gaze and

replied in a more concerned tone, "Now that you mention it, it does seem kind of odd. It looks

more like the bright light at the end of a cave or a tunnel than it does the morning sun peeking

through Marcella's window.". "Do you think it's a sign of some sort?" when Andy finished

speaking, both of them shrugged, but now they felt they had something to worry about.

Just then, the other dolls began stirring. The little Dutch Doll, Henny, who always cried

"Mama!" when he was tilted one way or another, peered up at Raggedy Ann and Andy through

the light from his little bed and asked aloud, "Good morning, Ann and Andy! What seems to be

troubling you?". "Yes, what seems to be troubling you?" asked all of the other dolls.

Sometimes, Ann and Andy both wished the other dolls would not echo one another like that,

but today, they did not seem to care. Ann raised a hand and pointed to the sunlight filtering

through the window. "This light is what is troubling us. It just doesn't look like all of the other

morning lights." explained Raggedy Ann. Andy scooted closer to the edge of the shelf and

dropped into the midst of the other toys, gathered himself up and said, "Ann and I have agreed

that it looks like the sort of light ya always see when you're leaving a cave or a tunnel. But we

aren't sure what that could mean!".

The other dolls looked both bewildered and confused by this. Susan, the china doll who

once had a cracked head, stepped forward and took a look about the room before speaking up.

"I agree. This light is more like a blanket being thrown over the world for warmth than it is a

flame by which to see." her words were a bit more poetic, but everyone understood what she

meant. Then the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees came forward, looking very nervous, as if he

had had an epiphany. Ann, Andy and the other dolls looked at his appearance and suddenly

were washed over with fear, even as he spoke. "I-I've s-seen a li-light like th-this be-before…"

trembled the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees. He looked as if his legs were about to give, so he

interrupted himself to take a moment to gather his emotions. The dolls were all on the edges

of their seats. "B-Back wh-when A-Ann and A-Andy re-rescued m-me…" he stammered. But

before he could utter another word, Ann and Andy both jumped up. "We've got it! It's the

Light At the End of the Tunnel that the humans talk about!" and Ann gasped as they both

shouted in unison before nearly fainting, falling from the shelf and into Andy's arms.

When Ann gathered herself, she spoke up again, this time asking, "But _who_ is the light

coming for?". The Penny Dolls both appeared shocked as they said, "Oh, dear… We hope not…"

and the other dolls followed suit with a "Oh yes, we hope not…" as Andy scratched his head and

figured out just who they were referring to. All together, Ann, Andy, the Camel and the other

dolls exclaimed, "NOT MARCELLA!" as they began to make a mad rush for the door of the

nursery so they could go to check on Marcella, who had yet to wake up.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Oh, My Candy Heart!

Just then, the dolls heard a rush of footsteps coming up the stairs. Not wanting to be

found out, the dolls all dropped into various positions on the floor in case the door should be

opened. Mrs. Gruelle's concerned voice rang in the dolls' ears with "Do you think she will be

alright, doctor?" and in reply came a very serious, very upset voice, "I cannot say for sure,

ma'am. I only wish I knew what she came down with this morning. Her symptoms are very flu-

like, but it seems to me to be a mutation of the disease…". The voices flew up the stairs, past

the nursery. Raggedy Ann tumbled over towards Andy. "Did you hear that? Marcella's sick!"

she exclaimed and nearly fell into sobs. Andy picked her up in a tight embrace and choking back

his own shock and tears, said "There must be something we can do to help her feel better!".

The dolls all hung their heads in sorrow and thought. Of course, there must be

_something_ they could do, but what could that be? Not a one of them knew. Ann finally lifted

her raggedy head and broke away from Andy's arms, announcing "I have an idea.". Andy and

the other dolls looked at her in a sort of wonder. "And what would that be, Ann?" they all

asked, Andy in the lead. "Well, you all remember those times Marcella would give us sugar

water and tell us about all the things it could cure? Didn't that make _us_ feel better?" Ann lifted

her palms up and shrugged, gesticulating her suggestion. The French Doll made a move as if to

speak and then furrowed her beautifully handcrafted features in brief thought. "Well, it

certainly made us feel happier. But, oh, how awful it was to have the liquid stick to our insides!"

she exclaimed. Andy turned to the French Doll and gestured towards Ann as he answered

somewhat excitedly, "But don't you think Ann is on to something here? I mean, something that

makes you feel happy is usually a good thing. I've heard before that happiness is the best

medicine!". This very nearly made Ann giggle before she put a hand on Andy's shoulder and

said, "Andy, I think you mean that _laughter_ is the best medicine." with a little grin. "Oh" he

shrugged, "Well, laughter often comes _with_ happiness, that's for sure.".

"For sure." echoed the other dolls. "Well, I know I felt better when I first came here!"

grinned the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees. Raggedy Ann carefully approached the door and

slowly pulled it open to peek around the corner and see if anyone was in sight as she said

"Maybe we could sneak into Marcella's bedroom and find out what might make her feel better

by listening to her.". Everyone agreed to this, and soon they were scaling the stairs up to her

room. The dolls made it just before they heard more footsteps coming up the stairs and once

again dropped motionless to the floor, this time, in Marcella's bedroom, right by her bed.

Fortunately for them, Marcella had been asleep and had not heard the noise of their scramble

to find spots near her bedside.

This time, Marcella's father entered the room with the doctor. "I just… If something

happens, I don't know what we'll… Oh…" Mr. Gruelle was talking very hurriedly and scratching

his hung head. On his face was a more distraught look than any other man could ever produce.

The doctor, meanwhile, scooted the dolls to one side and set down his medical bag. He

reached into it and soon produced a thermometer. At the loud noise of clanging instruments

and ruffling from the bag, Marcella slowly began to stir. She rolled an arm off the side of the

bed and groaned something about the room being too hot to bear. Marcella then made a move

to pull down her blanket, but was stopped when the doctor gently took up her hand and said,

"Marcella, you should keep your blanket on. If you don't, the cold will only worsen your

condition. Now, say 'ah'." before sticking the thermometer in her mouth.

Marcella dreaded this treatment as much as she did the way she felt. She wanted to be

in the nursery or outside playing with her dolls, but the doctor had said she must not be

allowed to play until she was cured. Mr. Gruelle wanted to sweep up his daughter in his arms

and just take away all of her troubles, but he knew that that would be impossible, especially

with the doctor preventing every move towards Marcella, saying that her illness was fairly

contagious. The doctor then pulled the thermometer out of Marcella's mouth and read it aloud

to himself. "Oh my…" he said, "She's burning up…Her temperature is a hundred and three

degrees! Quickly, we must get her a drink of water and some syrup!" as he quickly put away the

thermometer and, taking the bag, left again with Mr. Gruelle in a hurry.

Hearing their footsteps disappear downstairs, the dolls began to stir, forgetting for once

that Marcella was watching. "Hello there, dollies!" Marcella grinned, for she thought that she

was dreaming, now. Immediately, the dolls all startled and dropped to the ground again. "Oh,

don't be afraid! We're friends, right?" giggled Marcella from her bed. She was glad to be having

such a nice dream, away from the harshness of real life. Raggedy Ann looked around slowly

and quietly said to the other dolls, "I think Marcella thinks she is dreaming, and she wants to

talk to us!", so they all got back up and each happily addressed Marcella and asked how she

was feeling.

"Oh, simply _terrible_!" exclaimed she, "My whole body has been aching all day and I'm

extremely hot and tired.". Ann and Andy made their way up onto the pillow beside her head,

for you know, dolls cannot get sick, and said "That's too bad, Marcella! Is there anything you

would like us to do for you?". With a small, painful groan, but a slight smile upon her face,

Marcella turned on her side to fully face Raggedy Ann and Andy, and replied, "Just you all being

here to talk to me, to help me pass the time is all I want.". Her smile was warm, but her words

did nothing to calm the nerves of the dolls. It was then that the first, tiny, but significant crack

appeared in Raggedy Ann's and Raggedy Andy's candy hearts.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Cold

Just then, Marcella quickly dropped off to sleep. Raggedy Ann and Andy remained

where they were, sadly gazing at her now sleeping face. Ann leaned her head on Andy's

shoulder and sighed a deep sigh. Closing her own eyes to hold back a tear, she snuggled up to

him and said in a low whisper, "Our little Marcella looks just like an angel…". Andy simply

nodded in agreement and placed an arm around her. In contemplative silence, the pair slowly

followed Marcella into dreamland.

When they opened their eyes, they were surrounded by a lush, green garden with many

different flowers in bloom, and they saw Marcella, happy as could be, smiling and setting out a

play picnic for them, just as if nothing had happened. Marcella knelt down to place a teacup in

front of Ann, smiling brightly and saying, "Here you go, miss Ann! Some lemon and cherry tea!".

Marcella's voice no longer sounded pained and choked, so the two dolls knew they must be

dreaming and asleep. Marcella looked quizzically at Ann for a moment after placing the teacup,

cocked her head and asked, "Well, miss Ann, what do you say? Would you have liked to have

some tea with us, or not?".

At this, Ann realized that Marcella was still trying to talk to her and figuring that this

actually was a real dream, that it would do no harm to answer her, Ann grinned back and said,

"Why yes, Marcella! Thank you!". Marcella giggled a very bubbly giggle and said, "That's better.

For a minute there, I was afraid you couldn't talk anymore, Ann!". Then, turning to Andy and

offering him a cup, Marcella said, "So, how about you, Andy? Would you like to join us?" still

with a smile almost painted on her face. Andy slowly began to grin back as he answered her, "I

would love to! But…" he glanced around, "Is anyone else feeling as strange as I do right now?".

Raggedy Ann and Marcella looked surprised, but they answered nearly at the same time,

"Why, yes, now that you mention it!".

To them, the air felt heavy, which is very un-dreamlike, and the sunlight could almost

have been blinding, as if you were staring directly up into Heaven. As soon as they came to the

realization that a general feeling was keeping them down, something dark rippled through,

snuffing out all light, and it snatched away Marcella in an instant. For Ann and Andy, it felt like

a great, strong wind had blown through them for an instant and then suddenly, everything

went lucid and dark. Ann jumped in fear and wrapped her arms around Andy, who was just as

scared, but not daring to show it. "Andy! What do we do, now? Marcella's gone! Oh, this is

terrible!" so distraught was Ann that she could not gather herself enough to be able to come

up with any plans at the moment. Andy held her, but he mostly stood there, awestruck. The

landscape before them was the essence of the worst of nightmares.

Light had receded from view, casting large, ominous shadows everywhere. Flowers had

wilted, turned colors and died. Several plants had turned from plants into swirling, demoniac

monsters, jagged teeth dripping whole puddles of blood. Andy covered Ann's eyes and

watched in horror from a distance as the most horrible sight appeared. The horrible stench of

sulfur and rotting flesh permeated the air as the entire house instantaneously caught fire and

out of it, from out of every door and window flew unspeakable monstrosities of every kind. For

once in his life, Andy was no longer sure just how much he could depend on that paper flower

he had to keep him safe.

One of the shadowy wraiths flew fast in their direction, and both Ann and Andy

screamed aloud in pain. For a split second, Andy saw flames spring up all over his body,

devouring and licking away, while Ann suffered feeling the pain of being slowly ripped apart,

stitch by stitch. Andy began to speak to Ann through gritted teeth, saying "Ann, if something

this terrible ever actually happens, I want ya to know-" but he was interrupted before Ann

could hear the last of the sentence. There was a sharp, high-pitched, blood-curdling scream and

then everything went perfectly white and silent.

It was three am in the morning and the house was of course, dead quiet. Raggedy Ann

slowly opened her eyes and realized that it really was just a nightmare. "But… How could a

nightmare- a simple nightmare make someone feel all of that pain?" she wondered to herself as

Andy slowly opened his eyes. Andy reached up and placed his hand on his head, saying,

"Woah… What a nightmare!". Then, realizing Ann was sitting with him, in a brief moment of

heightened emotion, he threw his arms around her from behind and hugged her tight. "Ann,

that was horrible! We were burning alive and I thought we'd never see each other again…" he

held back a sob, but seemed to be doing a bad job of it, as Ann was able to hear it in his voice.

Ann turned to hug him back, saying, "Yes, Andrew, I know. I think we had the same horrible

nightmare…". Just then, Andy gasped, appalled at the sight before him as he looked out from

over Ann's shoulder. "Ann! Look!" he whispered frightfully, "Marcella is hardly even

breathing!".

Ann slowly turned, fearing the sight Raggedy Andy had pointed out. Indeed, Marcella's

breath was now uneven, and at times, panicked, as if she was still running from the frightful

thing in their dream. She tossed and turned, coughing from time to time in her sleep, and in the

moon's soft light, something moved along the wall and a very cold chill dawned itself on

Raggedy Ann and Andy. Andy began crawling forward over the bed, towards where the

movement had been seen, and Ann turned her attention to the doorway, in case whatever it

was would leave through there. Andy's eyes widened with fear as they looked up and met the

gaze of two burning red eyes and a set of huge, twisted, gleaming, grinning teeth. Andy tried to

muster the strength to move and call out to Ann, but he was frozen in fear, gaping up at the

morally repugnant figure, chills running up and down his entire being. Whatever it was, it was

after their Marcella, and there could have been no concept in existence more frightening than

not having Marcella around.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sunrise, Sunset and Tranquility

When nothing happened, Ann turned to see how Andy was doing. In an instant, she saw

it. That vile, evil figure merged with the shadows in the corner of Marcella's bedroom. It's

being there seemed to cast a sinister glow on everything, and for a moment, Ann swore some

of the things in the room were slowly becoming hideous and disfigured before everything

snapped back to normal and whatever it was had vanished. Andy sat back and rubbed his eyes

in shock and disbelief at what had just happened, and he double checked to see if it was really

gone. Now that the demon had fled the room, suddenly the first rays of sunlight burst in

through the window, revealing the calm shade of pink that coated Marcella's walls and

illuminating her flawless little features in her now seemingly calm and controlled slumber.

Remarkably, the light seemed dimmer than the morning before…

Ann looked upon Marcella's sweet sleeping face and wished with all her might that she

could take a deep sigh right then and relax, but being a ragdoll of tremendous thought which

brought with it a lot of bother and worry, right now, she just could not afford to even try it.

"Oh, Marcella…" her eyes watered up as she reached over to brush some of Marcella's hair out

of her face. "How could this happen? I mean, what is going on here?" Raggedy Andy rejoined

them, scratching his head. "Hey! Marcella's fever has gone down!" Ann jumped with joy and

nearly knocked over Andy, who of course had not seen it coming. "What? Did I just hear that

Marcella seems to be getting better?" floated up the sleepy voice of the Camel.

Ann and Andy leaned over the edge of the bed, smiling brightly, and seeing the other

dolls starting to stir awake, they excitedly announced that Marcella did indeed seem to be

getting better already, just with them being there. "Oh, joy! We will all stay in here with her

then until she recovers!" shouted all of the other dolls back up to them. At this, Marcella slowly

began to awaken, and knowing Marcella would now know she was not currently dreaming, all

of the dolls resumed lifeless positions. Marcella sat up, stretched, yawned and looked around.

Seeing the dolls on the floor and on her bed, she said to herself, "Well, that's strange… I just

had the strangest dream not long ago, where my dolls were talking to me… But then it turned

into an awful nightmare!".

At this, a chill ran down Marcella's spine when she laid eyes upon Raggedy Ann and

Andy, who were propped up against the pillow next to her, grinning their painted-on grins. It

reminded her too much of how the awful thing in her nightmares grinned so menacingly at her,

and after drinking some water and taking some medication, she turned to the doctor and her

mother, asking, "Please do take them and lock them away in the attic. I can not stand the sight

of my toys right now. They are too… Too cruel to look at.". So it was that Raggedy Ann, Andy,

and all of the other toys were packed away into a crate and taken up to be stored away in the

attic. When the dust had settled and the box was no longer being moved, all of the toys heard

something like the wood splitting apart, but Raggedy Ann and Andy both shed a tear at this, for

they knew that it was the sound of the cracks in their candy hearts cutting deeper and deeper.

As soon as the adults had gone, Henny made it his duty, since he was on the top of the

pile, to push off the lid of the box and see if the coast was really clear so they could all come out

instead of being stuffed up for who knew how long. As soon as the lid slid off, it promptly took

Henny with it and sent him sliding to the floor where he fell flat on his back and said "Mama!".

He quickly picked himself up and after scanning the area in his vision, he turned to the crate

and exclaimed "They are gone! We can all come out!". Soon, every doll had gotten out of the

crate aside from the Raggedies. Everyone wondered what was taking them so long. Inside the

crate, Andy situated himself so he could face Ann, crossed his arms, and looking very upset, said

"I can't believe Marcella would just toss us away like that! Without us, who is going to face that

thing? Certainly-" "Certainly not her parents…" Ann interrupted quietly.

"Exactly! She has no idea that we've been scared just the same as her… Almost makes me wish

she still had that bad of a fever so we could tell her without scaring her…" Andy half grumbled.

Ann leapt up and put a hand to Andy's mouth, exclaiming "Don't say such things, Andy! We

should never wish bad things on others…". Andy just turned away and answered, "Well, what

do you suggest we do, Ann? This isn't something we can just breeze through like stopping a

wolf from messing up our Christmas or getting a pumpkin to a kid in time for Halloween! I

mean-" he threw his arms in the air just as Ann interrupted again with, "I know, I know, Andy.

It's not something we can actually get our hands on, so it's going to be tough to stop it…" as she

stood up to go sit next to Andy and calm him down.

Ann thought quietly for a moment. "I know!" she cheerily stated, "What if we tried to

confuse it?". "Like how?" Andy appeared perplexed by this sudden outburst. Ann looked as if

she was a bit stumped just then, but she continued speaking. "What if we used a few things

from around here to make something that looked just like Marcella? If we use a motor, or

wheels too, we might just be able to trick the thing into following the decoy and then we can

catch it!" she was nearly leaping for joy once again. "Ya know…" smiled Andy, "That just might

work.".


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Not As Planned

It was then that Raggedy Ann and Andy heard a knock against the side of the box and a

voice carried through saying "Excuse me, but when are you two coming out to join the rest of

us?". It was the voice of the French Doll. "Oh!" Raggedy Ann exclaimed, "We'll be right out!"

and Raggedy Andy hoisted her up to the top where she climbed onto the edge and reached

down to help him up in turn. Soon, both dolls were on the floor with the rest of the company.

Camel came forward and asked, "If ya don't mind me askin'… uh… What were you two doin'

this whole time?". Ann giggled as she began to share her plan with the other toys, but at that

question, Andy seemed to hide his face and shuffle his feet around in the dust a bit.

When Ann was finished explaining, the Harlequin had already begun to search around in

the nearest crate full of knickknacks for anything that could be of possible use and the little

Penny dolls were searching high and low for fabric to use for a dress to cover the 'body'. Soon,

everyone was searching for things like mannequin heads, wigs, cloth, vacuum cleaners, brooms

and wagons. Anything that could be used to make a moving replica of Marcella. Andy was off in

his own corner rummaging through a box, half searching, half trying to hide his own emotions

from even himself. "Couldn't the Camel have worded that any better?" he thought, as the

question was still getting to him.

The time flew by very quickly and soon, the dolls had created a life-sized moving decoy

of Marcella using a vacuum cleaner as the base and lots of other random things as the

camouflage. "There! This should work, right Andy?" Ann was admiring their teamwork as she

took a few steps back, aligning herself with Andy, who was also looking. "Yeah! Looks pretty

good ta me!" he nodded with all of the toys in agreement. Now their issue would be getting it

downstairs without anyone noticing. "We should wait until tonight to get this plan in action."

Andy stated as he took another look at the thing. "Good idea, Raggedy Andy." the other dolls all

chimed happily. "Now we can just pass the time and wait until it gets dark. There's a window

over there by which we should be able to tell the time of day or night." Ann made a hopeful

grin as she gestured toward the little glass window.

Now that they were finished, the dolls all dispersed to explore or otherwise spend time

among themselves. Raggedy Andy propped himself up against the box in which they were

brought to the attic and resumed a very hurt, very confused face. As Ann gazed at the window,

her eyes watered up a bit and for one of the few times in her long ragdoll life, her painted

smile formed a frown. Feeling lonely, she went to sit beside Andy. They were quiet for a good

long while until Ann spoke up. "You know, I can't believe Marcella did what she did either…"

she half sobbed. Andy sighed, saying "Actually, Ann, I don't think it was really Marcella who

said that. I kinda feel like something was making her say those things…".

Ann looked up from her sobbing and saw Andy's hopeless expression. "What?" she

asked, choking back a tear. Andy sort of slumped forward and picked himself back up, and

sighed again, leaning all the way against the box, facing the ceiling. "I mean, I think that thing

has some sort of hold on her, now… I dunno… But we gotta stop it tonight. This plan had better

work." he stretched. Ann nearly began to cry again. "It had better." she sobbed and buried her

face in Andy's shoulder. She did not know how much more of this stress she could take. When

your smile is painted on, you are forced to wear it. Having to wear it so often while your candy

heart is slowly breaking is the most excruciating pain in all the world.

In a few hours, night cast it's blanket of stars over the earth and the dolls gathered to

help get the decoy to it's place. Some of the dolls had gone down to the lower floor and built a

pile of pillows upon the landing where the decoy would fall, so that it would not make noise to

wake the family. "Alright! Everyone ready?" Ann whispered to the dolls who were still up with

her and Andy in the attic. Everyone whispered back a 'yes' and together pushed the decoy

down the first flight of stairs. It landed with a soft thud on the pillows when suddenly, a quick

flash of darkness passed the dolls' eyes. "There it goes towards the nursery!" whispered the

Camel as they flipped the switch on the vacuum cleaner and sent the decoy clattering to the

first floor.

Then, all was quiet. Ann, Andy and the other toys froze in terror. "It can't possible have

gone already?!" whispered Andy nervously. Just then, slowly but surely, Marcella's bedroom

door creaked open and out spilled a hideous green light reminiscent of the flames from the

nightmare the previous night. Some of the dolls' hairs stood on end at the sight and sound.

"That thing has Marcella! We've got to get in there!" Raggedy Ann whispered loudly. At that,

the dolls rushed right into Marcella's room just in time to see the frightening figure bent over

Marcella's sleeping form.

Andy had had enough of this. Their plan had not worked and there was nothing else he

or anyone else could do- he charged right at the thing in a rage. A very deep, very sinister,

rumbling laugh arose from where it stood as it simply bent down and picked up Raggedy Andy

by the foot. Where there was nothing but a moment ago, in an instant, there spread those

same rows of twisted, menacing teeth as the foul thing touched a smoking black fingertip to

Andy's leg, marking it with a pitch black spot. The pain was searing like fire and Andy squirmed,

pulled, and kicked about in vain to get free. As he was doing this, the other dolls, with Ann at

their head, were surrounding the monster and climbing up on the bed, jumping at it and trying

to get it to leave for good.

Marcella began to move about and open her eyes. What she saw was not a pleasing

sight. In her waking hours, just like many other people, Marcella could not actually see the

nightmare-ish thing and instead, all she saw was Raggedy Andy, dangling by a foot in mid-air in

front of her, his leg smoking, with a slowly spreading black splotch on it. She began to scream

out of pure terror at the sight. When she saw the other dolls all over her bed and trying to fight

some invisible force, it was too much. She simply fainted out of fear of her dolls.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Evil Spreads

Raggedy Andy turned his head to look as soon as Marcella screamed and fainted.

Between shots of searing pain down his leg, it occurred to him that now, Marcella would never

want her toys back. The gaps in Ann and Andy's hearts was now very near the opposite sides

from where they had started and both of them were now barely holding together. Unless she

came to and witnessed them finally fending off the evil creature, she might not understand

what was going on and eventually get over the frightening sight of Raggedy Andy in mid-air. But

the pain was getting to him and he blacked out.

Raggedy Andy went limp as the thing let loose another sinister laugh and dropped him

to the floor, the splotch on his leg still smoking. This finally set Raggedy Ann off. Screaming out

at the top of her lungs, so to speak, she made her own mad dash at the figure, blinded with

rage and tears. The creature whisked away from Ann, swooped over Marcella and took off

gleefully clutching something to it's chest. "What…?" Ann weakly wondered aloud as she

dropped to her knees beside Andy's limp form. The other dolls were also in shock at how swiftly

the thing had departed, and they all wondered exactly what it had left so smugly with.

Just then, hurried footsteps came up the stairs. All of the dolls did as they always did

with people around and just lay there scattered where they were. Mr. and Mrs. Gruelle shot

through the door with the doctor to their daughter's bedside. They checked her temperature

and there was nothing. Panicked, they checked her breathing and her pulse. Nothing. The

couple began to weep and hugged their daughter's lifeless body between them. Now, the dolls

knew what the demon had finally robbed them of and as soon as they were all alone in the

room, each of the dolls began shedding tears for Marcella. "Oh, no… This is exactly what we

were trying to prevent!" wailed the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees.

"What's going to happen, now?" cried out the Penny dolls. "We… We've lost Marcella…

I… I can't believe it…" Ann was sobbing on top of Andy, who was still unconscious, though the

mark on his leg had disappeared. The dolls came around to console her, but she turned them

away. Something was not right inside her anymore. Her candy heart was completely broken in

two halves. Only her sobs had masked the crack's last noise so the others never heard it. "I'll

bet Andy is gone, too…" she thought to herself quietly.

Ann remained there in the same position all day long, it didn't matter now if someone

saw her. She was too distracted and distraught to care. That is, until she overheard the adults

discussing what to do with Marcella's toys. "I think you should keep them… For Dicky. You know

he's only two years old. Not even old enough to remember Marcella…" came the doctor's voice

through the door. But what got Ann stirred up was the reply from Marcella's parents. "We are

not keeping those toys! They are the devil's very toys! Didn't you hear Marcella screaming with

those toys in the room? Weren't you there when they gave her nightmares?!" they nearly

yelled. "Well, perhaps give them away! I don't know! But I do have a feeling that those toys

were not the cause of her troubles, so at least let other children enjoy them!" the doctor

advised.

Ann did not know what to do. They were all about to be given away. "We're going to be

separated, now?!" she broke down crying again. "Andy! Andrew! Come back, my Andrew…

Help…" she sobbed weakly into Andy's back. "We won't be separated…" came Andy's muffled

voice in a laugh that alarmed Ann so that she nearly jumped backwards, away from him and

ran. But before she could leave the room, there was a crushing hand around her neck. When

she turned to see who or what it was, there was Andy, all color drained from him, totally black

and white, practically bleeding black liquid from his eyes, with a hideous grin on his face. He let

out a low, almost inaudible chuckle and told her "There is no escape… We will not be

separated. I have a plan. Hurry and let the damned be damned." before letting her go.

As Ann took off in fear, a black, smoking ring appeared around her neck where she had

been choked. When she reached the nursery, she hurriedly closed the door and dropped to the

floor in hysterics. The other toys tried to help calm her down, but it hardly worked. She only

became calm for just long enough to tell them that they were going to be all given away before

breaking down again. As she wept, she wiped her face with the back of her hand and was only

sent into worse hysterics when she saw her own painted smile wiped off and smudged all over

her hand. Her color was slowly fading.

Just then, the door opened and in the doorway stood the one who had formerly been

Raggedy Andy with a twisted grin set on his face. "Hey. Henny. Can I talk to you for a moment in

the next room?" he had to keep from letting out a maniacal laugh. "Oh. Alright. You have a plan

for us, Andy?" asked Henny as he walked out with Andy. "Sure, Henny. Sure." Andy grinned

slyly as he closed the door behind them. In the next room over, there had been set up a

soundproof box and there was a lock on the door which Andy quietly locked behind them.

Henny turned to face him with a hopeful smile, saying "So, Andy. What's the plan?". He sneered

and putting a blade to Henny's throat, said "The plan is that we're gonna all be together

forever and ever! And the name's no longer Raggedy Andy! That son of a bitch is GONE. From

now on, I'm Rotten Sam!" with a crazed look in his eye and an insane laugh on his tongue.

Sam then proceeded to use belts to strap Henny down against his will inside the box and

began using the blade to brutally stab, bleed and peel away at Henny's wriggling form. Henny

yelled and screamed in pain, hoping someone would come to stop Sam, but he did not know

that Sam had prepared for that with a soundproof box. The evil had begun to take it's hold and

spread.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

It Moves In

Rotten Sam wiped his brow in relief, a sardonic, jagged smile playing across his face as

he began stashing what was left of Henny into a pitch black bag he had dragged into the room

for storage. Before leaving the sound-proof box, he looked back at the bag, tossed back his

head and let loose with hair-raising, somewhat childlike laughter. He then crept back out into

the hallway and made his way back to the nursery. In the background, on the first floor, the

doctor and the Gruelles were still coming to a conclusion as to what to do with the toys.

When Sam returned without Henny, the other toys were perplexed, and so, had to

enquire as to the whereabouts of Henny. Sam simply beamed darkly and answered, "Where is

Henny? Indeed, where is Henny? Why, he's off to gather the things we need for our plans to

stay together forever and ever!", hardly keeping his snickering to a minimum. This was quite

unnerving to the other dolls, for it seemed that Sam was unwilling to actually explain the so-

called plans. At this, Ann flew from her now silent break-down, and pinned Sam to the floor

with rage. "What have you done to me?! What have you done?!" she sobbed loudly, as her

tears slowly blackened into liquid ink like his.

Sam simply got up, brushed her off and laughed aloud. "Why, you were my Raggedy

Ann, weren't you? Wherever you go, I go. Wherever I go, _you_ go. If I'm Rotten Sam, you're my

Rotten Sandy. If I go to Hell, so do _you_!" he burst out at the end of his sentence into laughing

insanity. Raggedy Ann was no longer. In her place sat a depraved looking doll, tossing back her

head and laughing heartily along with Rotten Sam. "Oh, it feels great to laugh right now!" she

grinned. "It does! It does! But first, Rotten Sandy," Sam sat up to glare at the rest of the on-

looking toys, frozen in fear, "We must carry out our plans!".

Before Rotten Sam and Sandy could pick themselves up, the other toys made a dash to

find good hiding places- most of them climbed up and out through the window. Sandy was up

and running just in time to catch Susan by the foot, for she was very heavy and slow, being

made of porcelain. "Bravo! Now bring her with us to the next room!" yelled Sam from where he

was standing. Sandy's grin distorted and spread more and more as she slowly dragged a kicking,

crying, protesting Susan across the floor. When they reached the room next door and were

safely within the confines of the sound-proof box, the same bloodied straps used on Henny just

minutes before were used to tie up Susan, as well.

Susan writhed and screamed, even more so when she saw the ugly stains on the leather

restraints and the same splattered all over her line of sight. Sam drew out the blood-stained

knife and turned it over for a moment, Sandy looking over his shoulder. "Hmm…" he said, "You

know, Sandy, I don't think it will be any fun simply using this old thing to unite everyone.".

Sandy agreed and began to try to think of anything else she might know of that they could use

that could possibly be more enjoyable.

Then, it came to her. "I know!" she giggled, proud of her idea. "We can use the saw

machine that's down in the shed!" and at this, both her and Sam's grins doubled in their

grotesque appearances. Susan heard this and simply fainted. The thought of being slowly

ripped to pieces was just too much to bear. So, Sam slung the black bag over his shoulder as

Sandy did the same with Susan and the two warped rag-dolls happily skipped on their way out

to the second floor landing, singing in unison, "Off we go, smiling though, hippity hoppity

merry-oh! Off we go, smiling though because we know we're gonna get to, gonna get to kill!".

However, they stopped short and dropped their things as they fell to the floor when the

adults arrived up the stairs with a coffin they had run out to buy for Marcella's funeral. After

they passed, Rotten Sam turned to look Rotten Sandy in the eyes and tilting his head towards

the adults on the third floor, said merrily "Hey, Sandy. I betcha we could use them, too!".

"Yeah!" she grinned back," We could use them for extra material! But how would we get to

them, first of all?" her eyes followed in wonder to where his head motions indicated. Sam then

simply explained as best he could, "That will be tough. But I'm betting that we could try poison,

first.".

Sandy nodded in agreement, saying "That sounds delightful!" with a little childlike laugh

herself. But for now, their first concern was gathering all of the main ingredients for their little

plan, and so they got right back up with their items and continued to descend the staircase to

the first floor. Once there, they were out the door and into the backyard before the adults

could come back down the stairs. "We made it! There's the shed! Joy, oh joy!" Sandy leapt up

and clapped her hands with glee, nearly dropping poor Susan to the ground.

"Lets make a run for it before anyone can see us from the windows!" yelled Sam, taking

Sandy by the hand and nearly dragging her along. Once inside, the dolls put aside the bag and

hoisted the unconscious Susan up to the machine. As Sandy went to plug it into the nearest

outlet, both of them were shivering with anticipation. Neither of them could wait for the rush

of joy they would feel when the blood would come spraying out of their weapon and stain them

forever. It was especially nice to them because dolls and toys never usually bleed- the fact that

their victims bled meant that the fun of evil was indeed taking it's toll over the house.

The machine sputtered to life, with it's thin little saw moving at top speed up and down.

Rotten Sam joyfully picked Susan up under the arms while Sandy picked up her feet and they

proceeded to carry her towards the blade. When Susan's body touched the blade, it was tough

to get her through, which aggravated Sam and Sandy. But they persisted until finally, a crack

spread across her middle and in a huge burst of blood, she broke in two. As she came to and

screamed in further terror, Sam and Sandy's laughter nearly shook the shed as they picked up

another of the two halves and pushed it again into the blood-stained saw. Susan eventually

passed out and died as their maniacal cackling filled her ears.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
Hellraiser

When Susan finally fell limp, Sam and Sandy both groaned, "Oh, you're no

fun at all, Susan!", their devilish grins distorting into ugly frowns. "Oh, well.

It was great while it lasted." sighed Rotten Sam as he and Sandy added

Susan's broken body to the collection in the bag. Looking up gleefully after

tying the bag closed, Sandy asked, "So, Sam. Who do you think we should go

after next? This is great fun!". Sam dropped the bag to the floor and

furrowed his brow in thought. "Good question, Sandy. We're going to have to

play hide-and-seek to find everyone." he laughed a bit. "Ooh! Hide-and-Seek!

Hide-and-Seek! I love Hide-and-Seek!" Sandy backflipped and landed in a

heap under the table.

She quickly gathered herself back up as Sam hopped down to stash their

horrible collection in a floor level cupboard before they left the shed. As he

passed Sandy, who was sitting spreadeagled on the wood floor, a nasty

thought whisked through his mind. He had suddenly gotten an urge to find a

way to rid her of the tiny bit of innocence that she still seemed to possess,

the innocence that had been burning him from the inside out. It had to go.

Tossing the bag into the cupboard, he turned to Sandy and let out a low

chuckle. "Aren't we going to play the death game with the others?" she

asked, surprised at what he had suddenly done.

He gave her no coherent or audible answer. He only inched towards her,

laughing a low, grumbling, perverse laugh. In a split second, Sandy found

that she could no longer move, but she chose not to let it get her down. The

thought of murdering the others soon after this only made her too happy to

consider what was happening to her. So, she remained solitary as the last

ounce of true serenity and happiness was drained from her body. Sam, on

the other hand, was not at all silent. It was too much for silence alone to

bear. He dug his hands into her cloth, pulling and ripping through her seams,

while his insane voice filled the room.

Sam finally massacred the thing he hated most. Sandy lay there, still alive,

with a few gashes oozing blood stained bits of cotton. Sam silently rose to his

feet and pulled up his waist, snapping the buttons back into place, and left to

search for needle and thread. To him, there would never be as satisfactory a

kill as the one that had just come to pass between them. "What just

happened?" came Sandy's voice, weakly, but now much more sinister. "I just

fixed you. Thats all." Sam replied darkly. Sandy was a bit confused at this,

but she simply let it go. After all, what did it matter?

Sam promptly returned, needle and thread in hand and wove them through

her open gashes, finally pulling them taught and cutting them with his knife.

They were just leaving the shed when they heard a rustle and a low growl in

the bushes just under the back kitchen window. "Fido! Here, boy!" they called

out mockingly, " We got a nice bone for ya, pal!". Fido growled from the

bushes, "Oh, no! You won't trick me into coming to you! And if you come

near me, I'll bark and alert the humans!". Sandy grew irritated at this, and

stomping her foot, exclaimed, "Fine! But be warned, dog! We'll be through

with your ass by the end of the night!".

Frightened by this, Fido yelped and took off, out of sight. Sam and Sandy

both nearly split their seams laughing as Fido disappeared from sight.

"Alright, now c'mon, Sam! I think I saw Susie Pincushion waddling out by the

garden over there!" Sandy leapt up and pointed the way in excitement. "Oh,

what fun we shall have with her pin collection!" they both gasped as they

took off running for her. Susie Pincushion, seeing Sam and Sandy coming for

her, exclaimed "Oh, dear!" and attempted to dive into a patch of nearby

strawberries, but it was no use- she had already been spotted and targeted.

It also caused her to fall into an even worse predicament.

You see, when Susie jumped, one of the higher vines caught hold of one of

her pins, so that now, she dangled like a pinata and was unable to come

down. As Susie dangled there, sobbing aloud in fear, Sam and Sandy

surrounded her. "Look! How perfect!" Sandy clapped with a childish grin on

her lips. "Yeah! Should make it easier to stick the pins!" whooped Sam as he

approached Susie and slowly drew out a long needle from her bodice. Not

willing to just sit on the sidelines and watch the gleeful bloodshed, Sandy

grabbed hold of her own pin and withdrew it, waiting for Sam to give the go

ahead. Sam whooped like a young boy having a blast on his first tire swing

and the both of them began jabbing at Susie, battering her crying face and

ripping jagged tears in her seams, letting the blood rain down like candy from

a pinata.

However this time, they danced about and opened their mouths to catch the

spraying crimson streaks and seemed to swallow the drops rather

gluttonously, like the children often do with candy or soda. It seemed to

renew the both of them, and only made them want more. "Well!" shouted

Sandy, mouth filled with sloshing blood, "I think we should drink some of this

every time we find one of our friends from now on!". Sam, twisted grin

covered in the grim color of the stuff, licked his lips and replied, "Oh, great

idea, Sandy! Beautiful idea!". After this, in an insane moment of pure

emotion, in the height of passion, Sam roughly pulled Sandy towards him,

into the midst of the shower, and made what he considered an attempt to

suck some of that same energy from her, almost biting the cloth off of her

face.

It was the most disgusting, most bedeviled, most vile intimacy that you could

ever imagine. Though Sandy seemed to think it was a great idea, so she then

fell into trying it on Sam back. While heavy, pungent crimson liquid fell

everywhere to the dirt in large, growing puddles, Sam and Sandy merely

stood there, forgetting all about their needles and really just trying in vain to

murder one another for the second time that day. When they realized that

they were getting nowhere, Sam broke away first, saying "You know, I don't

think this is doing what we want." in a very disappointed tone. Sandy crossed

her arms and pouted, "Yeah, that's not fun at all.". So, they turned their

attention to getting Susie's drained carass down and back to the shed to be

dumped into their bag of friends.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Two Humps, Two Halves

After stashing Susie, pins and all, into the endless abyss of their luggage, Rotten Sam

and Sandy quickly crept to the door of the shed, casting long, fiendish glances about outside as

soon as the door was opened. The coast was clear, so they carefully stepped out. "Susie's

screams might have scared everyone further away. What are we going to do?" Sandy tried to

keep from sounding disappointed. "We're going to turn this whole place upside down until we

find every last one of those dumbasses. After that, we're going to make something very

special." Sam chuckled back in response.

Sandy looked at him quizzically, asking, "What are we going to make?". "A quilt, Sandy.

A quilt." Sam responded roughly, "Once it's finished, comes the best part of all!". Sandy was

about to ask another question when she caught sight of the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees,

delusions in his eyes, running at top speed across their path. Sam nearly fell backwards with

enthusiasm for the chase before the two of them let out heart-stopping screams of twisted joy

and gave chase. The Camel heard this, and it nearly made his old knees give out on him right

away.

He clenched his teeth into his bit and willed himself to go faster, until he could find

some place safe to hide until this whole ordeal blew over. He regretted that he did not feel

brave enough to help his friends should they fall victim to the bloodshed, but someone had to

survive. "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! They're getting closer!" he yelled out, running to the front yard in

the hopes of causing them to be seen by the Gruelles. Unfortunately, the Gruelles had already

left the house with the coffin, off to the church and the funeral home to schedule a burial. No

one was home to see the awful sight and put a stop to it.

On realizing this, the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees dropped himself fast to the

ground. The shock and anxiety on not having any escape had brought about his old delusions

of going home with the non-existent toy camels and soon, he was just dragging himself along

slowly, belting out "I'm a-comin'! I'm a-comin' home! Wait fer me!". The sight of this was far

too much for Sam and Sandy. For a moment, they lost themselves in a fit of giggles, having a

blast watching their poor old friend suffer. "Oh my, what a sight!" laughed Sam very loudly.

Sandy fell on her back, pointing, giggling and speaking rather incoherently.

Sandy's laughing quickly reached a crescendo with a shrill, high pitched, brief, nearly

demonic laugh. This shattered the Camel's visions and he immediately picked himself back up,

lurching himself forward into a run. "Hey! Come back here!" Sam was laughing hysterically as

he made after the Camel and caught him by the foot before he could escape again. Dragging

the Camel, Sam accidentally snagged a piece of the Camel's blue cloth on a huge, very sharp

thorn in a nearby bush. Sandy squeaked with joy and rolling onto her side facing Sam and the

Camel, laughed, saying, "Look! He's gotten caught on a thorn! Keep pulling! Pull! Pull!" before

picking herself up and rushing to help Sam tug.

The Camel cried out aloud in pain and terror. He could feel his being ripped apart slowly

and excruciatingly, right down between his two humps. Unlike others, he remained awake the

entire time. Biting down on his bit and issuing forth miserable tears in rivers down his cheeks,

he turned his head as far as he could back and saw the terrifying sight of loads of cotton and

blood seemingly spewing out in globs through his side, where the thorn was keeping it's hold.

Sam huffed and pulled with all of his might while Sandy did the same, both of them just having

a ball every once in a while looking to see how much had poured out of the Camel's open gash.

Finally, the Camel heard the familiar voice of his previous owner and his heart leaped.

Suddenly, all pain left him alone and he found himself back in her loving arms, only too happy

to be reunited with her. Sam dropped the Camel, and shooed off Sandy's hands, saying,

"Sandy, I don't think our dear friend wants to play, anymore. Stop.". Sandy happily obeyed,

knowing that now, they could finally stop to partake of the sweets that had come from the

Camel. "Well, that's too bad… He's missing out!" she said with a frightening twinkle in her eyes

as the two of them turned to the pile of blood and cotton that now laid there before them.

Sam licked his lips, while Sandy chuckled. For a moment, they just stood there, admiring

their work. After a moment's silence of admiration of the hideous sight, they gleefully leapt

into the mess like it was a pile of autumn leaves, raked together just for their pleasure. They

squealed and giggled, swimming about in it and throwing some of it into each other's mouths

every now and then. When the both of them had had their fill, they sat up, nodded to one

another, and began to pick up the mess to take it back to the shed. New blood stains marking

their countenance, beaming unprepossessingly, they took their prize, singing and skipping

away.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

What Doesn't Burn

After hiding the Camel's remains, Rotten Sam and Sandy left to search the house

while they still had the chance. On entering the front parlor, Sandy noticed a loud _pink! pink!_

coming from the glass ceramic flower vase sitting atop the decorative nightstand to her left.

"Sam!" she whispered, hardly able to contain the adrenaline, "Someone is behind that vase!".

Behind the Gruelle family portrait sitting beside the vase, cowered the two Penny Dolls,

covering each other's mouths to prevent any screaming. One of them peered around the frame

and jolted at the sight of Rotten Sam and Sandy barging in to search for the others.

Smirking with anticipation, Sandy began to inch herself up one of the legs of the table,

towards the Penny Dolls. Sam remained behind, watching with a cruel eagerness. "After this,"

he thought to himself, "We shall finally take a break and begin work on the final steps of our

plan.". Sandy was just pulling herself up onto the table behind the vase when both Penny Dolls

shrieked and scattered, too blinded by fright to keep track of one another. Unamused for once

with the spectacle, Sam left into the kitchen to find a pair of scissors for the quilt.

Sandy, on the other hand, had only just begun with her romping about. However, she

was only one doll and only managed to corner one of the twin Penny Dolls. She had seen the

other one scamper off into the kitchen without thinking. When she gazed upon the fearful

expression of the doll she had cornered up close, a few stitches in her face broke to create an

even bigger, more hideous smile. Seeing this, the trapped Penny Doll looked around frantically

for anything in sight that might be able to defend her. She found that she was within arm's

reach of a Bible and she took the first chance she got to open it right up and begin reading

passages. Words came from her mouth unbearably slowly, as Raggedy Ann had been the only

one of them who had been taught to read.

Rotten Sandy pealed with vile laughter at the stupidity of the cornered doll. The words

were sluggish and in her new condition, they could do nothing to make her fear or obey them.

Sandy caught the doll by the arm mid-sentence and began gradually snapping it in half so she

could just enjoy the tortured, painful wails and tears of her target. In the kitchen, meanwhile,

Sam had his back turned to the other wondering doll as he dug in a drawer for scissors. "If she

thinks I am distracted," he thought to himself, "She will least expect it when I finally jump on

her." and he let out a little giggle. Little did he know, the other little doll had happened upon

Mrs. Gruelle's bottle of Holy Water, and was sneaking up behind him, prepared to throw it all

on him before he even realized she was standing there.

He felt around the drawer for a moment longer until "Aha!" he exclaimed as he pulled

out the scissors. At that moment, the little doll behind him yelled out, "Take this, you

monster!" and drenched him in the stuff. He sat there, silently giggling to himself, slowly

getting louder, letting the liquid drip from his hair and his hands. "You think that _purified water_

would stop _us_? Bullshit!" he screamed in her face as he whipped around and pinned her to the

wall, both hands crushing her little wooden neck and causing it to slowly splinter. The little

Penny Doll could think of nothing now that would help her escape his evil grasp. She gasped for

breath, but it was of no use. She was about to open her mouth to try crying out for her sister,

when she heard a piercing, heart-crushing bawling noise shatter the air from the other room.

She suspected that Rotten Sandy had already gotten to her sister now, so she gave in

to unconsciousness and eventually death, thinking that she would instantly be together and

safe with her sister. She could not have been more wrong. As Sam was increasing his strangling

grip on her, as she was thinking about seeing her sister again soon, Sandy was still preoccupied

with leisurely ripping apart her prey, ligament by ligament, limb by limb, toe by toe, finger by

blood splattered finger. Now, the last little Penny Doll no longer even had enough energy to

scream in pain it was so awful and draining. But Sandy was loving it all, even after her victim

had ceased screaming and wiggling.

She kept her mouth open, smiling and laughing maniacally as showers of blood flowed

right up from all of the open wounds on the Penny Doll and onto her tongue. "Oh, Sam! You're

missing out on a _wonderful_ feast!" she shouted friskily in Sam's direction. But there was no

response. Sam had no cares, for he was busily enjoying a new ecstasy. Back in the corner of the

kitchen where he had murdered the other little Penny Doll, he sat there licking blood from his

lips and openly tearing right into her carcass which had gruesomely turned to flesh and blood,

but saving the most important pieces for their materials.

When she gained no response from Sam, Sandy became very upset, screaming out,

"Alright, fine!" and turning back to her feast, muttered to herself, "Sam's just a careless,

heartless little shit, anyway…". But she was still so distraught by this that she walked right on up

to her target, who was already long gone, and straight away ripped off the head of the doll.

Sandy was surprised when this did not cause another outburst of blood and so, took her first

look inside of the head she was now gripping by the hair. When she peered in through the neck

hole, she found a very appealing little snack, much like the stuff Sam was eating now in the

kitchen.

Rotten Sandy stuck her hand right into the blood-covered glob and taking out a chunk,

popped it right into her mouth and devoured it with vigor. It was so exquisite to her that she

decided to keep eating the thing until she had scraped all of it right out and none was left.

When she had finished, she took the empty head in one arm and hoisted the body over her

other shoulder, then made her way over to the kitchen to meet with Sam. When she had found

him, a whole mess of gruesome goodies she had never seen before met her eyes all over the

countertop in the corner, all over the windows, and all over the walls. There was Sam, bent

over the other doll, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and beginning to get up to meet

her.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

French Fry

As her eyes again met Sam's cold, unfeeling look, Sandy's previous emotions quickly

faded away. Or melted, she could not quite tell. All she knew was that she was no longer

angry with him for not answering her just moments before, and she did not know why that

was, but she was not willing to question that, either. "We should get moving with our friends

here back to the shed so they can keep everyone else company while we work." for once,

Sandy sounded dead serious and there was no giggle in her voice. Sam nodded silently in

agreement, tossing what was left of his victim aside and moving to wipe some of the blood

from the scene before leaving. Seeing what he was doing, Sandy piled her prize up with his,

took up a soaked cloth and began scrubbing, as well.

When all of the blood was removed, Sam finally spoke. Grinning, he turned to

Sandy and said, "Now then, lets head out.". Following Sam down from the counter after he had

grabbed his kill, she took up hers and he led her through the kitchen entryway and through the

front door, back around to the shed, where the Penny Dolls were added to the number of

corpses. Then, Sam and Sandy situated themselves comfortably on the wooden floor, black bag

between them, needles and thread in hand. They also had knives and hammers ready in case

they should need to skin or crush something so that it may be added to their little masterpiece.

Sam opened the bag and hauled out the two halves of the Camel, first. He lay them

between himself and Sandy, saying "Here. You skin this side, I'll skin the other. After that, we

should have some material with which to make pockets into which we can sew the harder parts

of our other friends.". "Alright! Friends forever and ever!" squealed Sandy, regaining her

cheeriness as she took up a knife and began peeling away the skin of the Camel. Sam laughed

with her as he began paring on his end, as well. "So, Sam…" Sandy beamed, "What do you think

of me, now? Huh?". "I think just the same thing about you as I do about myself- both of us,

poor, miserable, beautiful but perfectly ugly wretches." he stopped laughing abruptly before

answering in a completely calm, chilling voice.

"Wonderful! I was thinking just the same thing!" Sandy giggled and nearly fell over again

with the Camel's hide in one hand and the knife in the other. After this though, an hour passed

by silently, in which they managed to get all of the material off of the Camel that they could.

"Alright! Yay! Now we can start stitching the patches and pockets!" Sandy clapped and

bounced in place. "Yep. I just hope we don't yet have enough material to sew everything in. If

we do, we have no more reason to have our fun!" he sighed as he began to create the first

stitch in the Camel's hide. "I hope so, too!" Sandy agreed full-heartedly as she too began work

on her first pocket. By the time Sam had finished creating the first patch, Sandy had finished the

first pocket, and they began to work together to stitch the pocket onto that patch.

In another hour, that patch was sewn to that pocket, and that pocket stuffed with bits

of Henny the Dutch doll and then sewn closed against the patch. It continued on like this until

the Camel's hide was all used up and most of Susie Pincushion, half of both of the Penny Dolls,

some of Susan, and a tiny bit of Henny remained in the bag. "Yay! There wasn't enough! There

wasn't enough!" clapped both Sam and Sandy, huge smirks plastered across their

monochromatic, bleeding features. So, they stored everything away in the bag again and hid it

from sight. The door to the shed creaked open, and there stood the French Doll, in shock,

disgust, and fright to find that where she wanted to hide contained the very monsters she was

trying to escape.

The two turned their sickly grins towards her, saying, "Oh, hello there, Babette! You're

just in time for a grand old party!". Babette, the French Doll, began backing up and gasped,

exclaiming, "Oh! Comme c'est laid un spectacle! » before taking off in the opposite direction.

Sam and Sandy took off after her like wolves running for the kill, yelling after her, "Oh, do not

be afraid of us, Babette! We are all friends, are we not?!" with malicious expressions. They

chased Babette all the way into the living room of the Gruelle house, where she jumped up and

into a pot hanging in the fireplace, hoping to lose them. Her mistake. Sam leaned in to whisper

chillingly in Sandy's ear, "She jumped into the pot over there! Quick, Sandy! Go find me some

butter from the kitchen and I will get the fire started!". Silently but happily, Sandy nodded and

was off to the kitchen to look for a stick of butter.

Sam walked straight over to the fireplace, knocked down the billows, and began

jumping on them to make them rekindle the little flame that was barely smoking. Inside the

metal pot, Babette began to feel heat, but she suspected it was just her imagination after the

fright she had just endured, so she did not even make a peep. Very soon, thinking she was safe

and feeling all of the warmth and fuzziness, Babette dropped soundly off to sleep. It was

around this time that Sandy finally found the stick of butter and tossed it into the pot with

Babette. Now, all Sam and Sandy had to do was watch and wait until they heard sizzling and

smelled the aroma of kaolin clay from the container. When Babette awoke, one of her arms

was becoming liquid and her paint was running in terrifying streams from her body. She

screamed aloud in agony and shock, but the Gruelles were still not home and no one was in

hearing distance to come to her aid.

Neither did she last very long. Soon, her body was nearly swollen, although a bit melted

and after just another second, she shattered in all directions inside the pot. At the sound of

shattering porcelain, Sam jumped down from the couch where they were waiting and used the

broom to lift the handle of the pot off of the hook and bring it down to the floor. Inside was a

bubbling, porcelain, organ-tastic mess. By now hungry again, Sam and Sandy did not even wait

for it to cool before scooping up globs of the paranormal entrails and blood and stuffing it into

their mouths until they were full again. "What a delicious treat this is!" they both exclaimed

simultaneously in ecstasy before cleaning up and taking the pot with them back to the shed to

let the rest harden once again..


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

A-Hunting We Will Go

As Rotten Sam and Sandy were shoving their things into a dark corner of the shed,

Sandy spotted something interesting on the table adjacent to the saw machine. On it

glimmered a small machine that prominently featured a pair of razor clamps used previously to

make grooves in wooden objects. Dropping her end of the pot, Sandy shrieked with zealousness

and immediately clambered up to admire the contraption. "We could use this!" she grinned

down at Sam, who was now stuffing the hardened bits of the French Doll into the bag. "Yeah,

looks like it could be a good animal trap." agreed Sam as he finished shoveling.

"Ooh, lets hide it in Fido's favorite bone-burying spot in the garden!" Sandy giggled, very

proud of her idea. "Hey, yeah! We could do that! Oh, won't that be a grand sight to see?!" Sam

clapped with joy at the thought. Immediately, Sandy leapt down from the table and searched

about for the machine's cord. She found it plugged into a socket on the opposite wall and

yanked it out right away, causing it to spark a tiny flame on the tip of her white mitten hand.

Dropping the cord, she gazed for a moment at the fire on her fingertips with glee on her face.

Seeing the dancing light playing it's dance across the walls, Sam turned to look and wonder for

a moment himself at where the light was coming from.

They felt a connection to it that they could not quite seem to understand, but they liked

it. "How very alluring…" they both whispered in silence, their murderous eyes reflecting the

capering blaze. Just then, Sandy snapped out of the trance and quickly blew out the flames

before they could consume her entire hand, leaving a dark, rusty looking stain where the flames

once played. Shaking his head and coming back to reality, Sam lined up with Sandy and the

two of them began dragging the contraption out into the garden to hide it and find a power

source for it behind the house. They waited seemingly forever for Fido to return. The sun was at

it's mid-afternoon position and it sort of blinded them, so the two of them curled up together

under one of the bushes against the wall of the house.

An hour or so passed, and Sandy seemed to be coming in and out of sleep, resting her

head on Sam's chest. Without thinking, Sam placed a hand on her shoulder and kept his gaze

set on their little trap, waiting impatiently for Fido's appearance. For a moment in her dreamy

state, Sandy thought of just how nice it was to be sitting there with Sam, simply lulling off to

sleep in the afternoon heat. However, a sharp bark rattled her awake as Sam shot up from

where they sat and bounded off to fix the machine so Fido would not be able to escape. The

adrenaline simply bubbled up inside Sandy and she followed Sam into the kill, screaming and

giggling with all of that old childish delight.

"Help me! Someone help me! Oh my!" Fido whimpered loudly as blood began running

down his hind leg where the trap had clenched it's teeth. "We told ya that ya wouldn't last long,

you dumb mutt!" Sam cupped his hands and yelled before bending to adjust the machine to

and extremely hard to break setting. As he was doing so, he noticed that there were even

higher settings, one of which might just be able to slowly break off Fido's leg as he pulled

himself free.

Sandy had also spotted this and both of them laughed aloud with relish at the very idea

of Fido causing his own death, running and yelping in pain and fear as the blood drained from

his body through that leg. So, Sam yelled out, "Alright, Fido, old boy! Just let us know if it gets

to be too much for ya!", the same evil in his voice as he set the machine to it's maximum

setting. Fido yelped again and began to pull away harder and faster than he had before. Fido

found himself free and running away in no time, bowling right through Sam and Sandy and

drenching them in the blood spraying from his missing leg.

Fido did not get far before he fainted from the loss of blood and Sam and Sandy leapt

upon him. When he opened his eyes, his final sight was a terrible fright. To his left, he could see

various ugly organs- his intestines, his stomach, his kidneys. Nearly everything that had been

inside of him moments before, and what was worse, Sam and Sandy were gleefully shoveling it

into their blood-covered mouths as he slowly blacked out in the arms of death. "Hey," Sam said

through a mouthful of the god-awful stuff, "He's gone. Man! We should have skinned him while

he was still alive!". Sandy got up and went over to examine Fido's face, saying "Yeah. Too bad!

We probably would have had a lot more fun doing that instead of snacking!".

Sam shrugged, replying "Oh, well. Can't be helped." and stood up to pile everything

back inside and drag Fido over to the shed so they could harvest his pelt to use in their quilt.

Sandy, seeing that it was time to take everything inside, scampered off back to the garden to

retrieve Fido's missing leg. After all, they needed all the fur they could get. Every once in a while

on the way to the shed, Sam had to stop and pile entrails back into Fido's ripped stomach, as

dragging him along on the grass and dirt was pushing and dragging some of him out and leaving

a trail of blood. Soon, Sandy was back within his line of sight, catching up, holding the bleeding

leg tightly under her right arm, fiendish grin still plastered on her face.

With her other arm, Sandy picked up the remaining hind leg and helped Sam to carry

Fido the rest of the way to the shed. They returned to their little sewing spot and proceeded to

rip, peel and pull away the pelt from his body, causing more blood to flow, which helped them

to pass the time, as every now and then, they stopped to either lick some of it off or take a

large bite or two out of the already peeled spots of flesh. Skinning a once-living biological

creature proved to be the most fun the two ever had while sewing, and they wanted more.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Hardly Harlequin

Nothing was now left of Fido except some bones and fur, and Rotten Sam and Sandy

had completed and filled several more compartments in the quilt. Now, it was big enough to

throw over the corner of one of the tables, but Sam and Sandy had imagined that they wanted

to create an even longer, wider quilt. In some places, the hideous thing was spotted or striped

with colorful patterns from Susie Pincushion's gown, and in other sporadic squares, the

material was that of Fido's fur. To one of the ends was fastened the French Doll's pretty little

lacey blue gown. Sandy had done this instead of ripping the gown to shreds because she

thought the dress too beautiful to do so.

Sam reached into their bag before filling the most recent pocket and exclaimed, "Oh,

dear! Sandy, I don't think we have much more left to work with, and I know we have yet to

ensnare everyone!". Sandy put her hands to her face, appearing shocked. "What is left in the

bag?" she asked. "Well, so far, I can only find the feet of the Penny Dolls, an arm from the

French Doll and then there are a few bones and teeth from Fido." he sighed, half disappointed.

Sandy appeared to be thinking and was counting numbers on her non-existent fingers, saying

"Well, we've gone after one… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… I think we've gone

after eight of our dear friends. That leaves-" "One toy and two humans." interrupted Sam,

cheering up.

"Oh, really?! Is that so?! Yay!" Sandy bubbled and giggled, rocking back and forth and

clapping her hands. This time, Sam had not needed to tell her that they should get back to

work, since she immediately got up to follow him out the door. This time, though, there might

be some trouble in their way, as the Gruelles were pulling up into the drive with their Ford. Sam

and Sandy stopped short and crashed to the ground so as to avoid any suspicion. They had

fallen onto their backs and had a good view of the window into the attic, where they spotted a

painted on face much like theirs, except this face was meant to be sunny and happy when the

wearer was not in the state they were now. The Harlequin watched and wondered in fear as

Sam and Sandy stared right back up at her.

As soon as the Gruelles had been in the house for some time, Sam and Sandy wearily

kept an eye on as many windows as they could as they rose to their feet and began their trek

into the house. On reaching the back wall, Sandy grabbed Sam by the collar and gestured to an

open window that she had found with it's curtains softly blowing in the breeze. "Lets try going

in through there," she whispered, "So theres less chances of them noticing us.". Nodding, Sam

carefully picked up Sandy and sat her on his shoulders so that she would be able to climb up to

the sill first and then pull him up. The Harlequin panicked on seeing the two clambering into the

house through a window. Where was she to hide, now? Now that the Gruelles were home, she

was trapped up there in the attic with no place to run unless she stopped caring about scaring

the Gruelles. However, she hated to frighten people the most and so chose to try locking

herself inside an old chest.

"I just can't believe she's gone…" sobbed Marcella's mother over the phone to her

mother in the hallway as Sam and Sandy quietly crept inside. Sandy tumbled to the floor from

the sill after Sam had already alighted and accidentally rolled over onto a creaking board.

"Shh!" Sam put a finger to his lips and looked at her with discipline, "You'll have to be more

careful than that, Sandy! Remember, we're not alone anymore.". Luckily, the noise attracted no

attention, as the house was a bit of an older one and had always made it's own noises. Sam and

Sandy both froze, at a red light, behind the couch when Mrs. Gruelle was heard hanging up the

phone and calling to Mr. Gruelle, asking what he would want for dinner.

"Whatever you choose to cook would be good, honey!" Mr. Gruelle's voice floated

down from his at-home office. Along with it came the sound of the type-writer, no doubt

audibly marking out the words on paper of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy's latest adventure

in loving memory of Marcella, who so dearly adored those stories. Sam went on ahead after

Mrs. Gruelle had passed the room, very nearly dragging Sandy along behind him by the arm.

Before leaving the room, however, Sam and Sandy double checked to see that Mr. and Mrs.

Gruelle were still both out of sight before approaching the stool beside the telephone. "Say,

Sam! I have a grand old idea! Whaddaya say you and I make a call up to the attic?" Sandy

grinned from ear to ear.

"Lovely idea, Sandy!" Sam replied as he helped her up to the phone. When both of them

were up on the stool, they reached out and leapt for the phone, knocking it down onto the soft

cushion where they stood. Sitting snugly together, Sandy at the earpiece and Sam at the mouth

piece, they concentrated. Some unseen force began whirling the dial on the hook round and

round, stopping after it had punched in three six's. After that, the phone began to ring into

their ears and also up in the attic where there was no phone. In a short time, they heard the

Harlequin's weak little "H-Hello?" and the two of them snickered to themselves.

In his deepest, raspiest, most chilling voice, Sam leaned in towards the mouth piece and

whispered, "_Nostrum pilae serotina absolvo._ _We are coming for you_." and the two of them only

just managed to put the phone back on the receiver before breaking out into hysterics and

trying to stifle themselves before anyone could hear. "Alright, she's probably so scared, she

can't move! Lets get going!" Sam sneered as he helped Sandy down from the stool and they

were once again on their way up to the attic. They stealthily snuck around the house, avoiding

any attention, until they were in the attic.

The Harlequin was so upset by the call that she was chattering and fumbling to try to get

out of the chest and save herself. This made a great rattling noise, attracting Sam and Sandy

directly to the chest. Slowly and carefully, they lifted the chest to take it with them, as neither

of them had any interest in killing their victim right then and there. They wanted to play a little

first, and both of them knew this without having to let the other know. Luckily for them, Mrs.

Gruelle had realized that she was missing a few ingredients for the dinner and left the house

with Mr. Gruelle to go grocery shopping.

Feeling movement, Harlequin curled up in a corner of the chest and kept herself from

making another peep, hoping they would think she was dead from suffocation and leave her

alone. Unbeknownst to her, Sam and Sandy were much more intelligent than that and had

decided to take the chest to the kitchen where they could find and pick up a small meat

grinder. But then, Sandy suggested a slight change of plans. "Sam," she spoke, "Don't you think

using the microwave might be more fun? We could clean up our mess and everything and be

done before they even get back home.". Sam thought for a moment before saying, "Yes, I

believe you're right, Sandy. It would be more fun to play with the microwave instead." As they

set the chest down on the floor of the kitchen.

Sam then clambered up onto a chair and stretched out his arms towards Sandy who was

about to toss the chest to him. He caught it and placed it above his head on the nearest table,

which happened to be the table that held the microwave. The Harlequin felt the motion and

could no longer keep herself from shouting and crying hysterically or kicking at the walls of the

chest. Sandy joined Sam on top of the table and taking each handle in their hands, hefted the

chest into the microwave. They zealously closed the door, set the time and clapped along with

one another, singing "Pop Goes The Weasel" as loud as they could. A minute into their song,

they heard a loud _pop!_ and looked inside the machine to see a frightening, gruesome mess of

wood, blood, guts and organs strewn about the microwave's interior.

"Awww! That didn't even last long enough!" pouted Sandy as Sam reached in to start

scrubbing off some of the muck and to drag out what was left of the Harlequin. When

everything was shining and clean aside from the pile Sam and Sandy were now carrying in their

arms, the two happily skipped off with their prize, all smiles, back to their shed.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Slasher

As they were leaving the kitchen with the Harlequin's remains, they were interceded by

an appalled Mrs. Gruelle, who screamed and dropped her groceries that instant.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!" she screamed and turned to create some distance between

her and the murderous dolls while she searched for something with which to defend herself. It

had been unlucky for her that Mr. Gruelle had decided to drop her off by herself after realizing

he needed to go buy more ink for his stories. Sam and Sandy dropped their things at the same

instant and pleasantly surprised by her entrance, began their own search for a good weapon.

Mrs. Gruelle dug around frantically in each of the drawers until she drew out a sharp

kitchen knife and aimed it at Sam and Sandy. "Back off, or I'll cut you to pieces!" she yelled,

panic still evident in her voice. Ignoring her, Sam left Sandy, saying to her, "Sandy, I'll be back

soon. Keep her under your watch.". Sandy nodded and kept a good eye on Mrs. Gruelle until

she found her own knife. After which, Sandy proceeded to patrol all escape paths in Mrs.

Gruelle's sight. Rotten Sam had gone to the tool crate in the shed to look for a good, long, tight

piece of rope and an adhesive hook that could hopefully stick to wood. He found a hook, but it

had no base, so he then figured he would just simply jam it into the ceiling and throw the rope

over it.

Very shortly, he was on his way back to the kitchen, rope and hook in hand. Before

entering though, he tied a noose in one end and signaled to Sandy to distract Mrs. Gruelle.

"Yippee!" cried Sandy joyfully and she ran towards Mrs. Gruelle, knife flashing as she

brandished it. Mrs. Gruelle let out a shrill cry of terror and, closing her eyes, attempting to hack

away at Sandy, who dodged every swing, laughing whole-heartedly the entire time. Sam took

this chance to quickly scale the counter behind Mrs. Gruelle and then the cabinets in order to

reach the ceiling. When he pulled himself onto the top of one of the cabinets, he tossed the

noose over the hook and around Mrs. Gruelle's neck. Before she could realize what was going

on, there was a sharp pain in her neck, she could no longer breath, and she could see her feet

dangling above the floor.

"I'm going to die here… Like this?" she thought to herself, about to cry. When Sam

lowered her back down to the ground, Mrs. Gruelle was only barely alive, enough to see what

was going on around her, but she was not going to be around for long. She found that she was

paralyzed and could not move at all and slowly, silently, grinningly, Sam and Sandy were inching

with their knives up onto her chest. Not wanting to see her own full demise, Mrs. Gruelle closed

her eyes and looked away, hoping to be on her way to Heaven before anymore pain and

trouble came upon her. Unfortunately, that would be yet another wish that would not come

true. Mrs. Gruelle winced, or she thought she did, as she felt the two knives begin ripping and

plunging away at her body. Before almost slipping away, she felt her body become drenched in

a warm wetness. Then, there was that good old warm light which had kept visiting before then.

"Fountains! Fountains of sweets!" cried out Sam and Sandy as they kept on stabbing,

trying to create more and more spouting fountains of blood. "Ya know, Sam, we like a lot of the

same things, I think!" smiled Sandy as she licked the spreading blood from one of her hands and

rolled about with giggles. Sam agreed with her, beaming back and just then, he noticed that

Mrs. Gruelle seemed to be leaving them. "Hey! Wake up!" Sam slapped her awake, though he

knew it would not last long- Mrs. Gruelle was now more than half dead, after all. "Sandy! Help

me gather the stuff for our project!" he exclaimed as he turned to get to work himself. Mrs.

Gruelle's sight was faltering, but she was conscious of what was going on, to some extent. In

another instant, she witnessed the dolls peeling away her own skin with their weapons, causing

blood to drain even faster. After seeing this, she blacked out, this time, for good.

Sandy wiggled with excitement as she held up a patch of skin and kicked her feet happily

up and down as she began to lick the underside clean of any blood. Adjacent to Sandy, Sam was

behaving like a young boy with an ice cream cone with his own patch of skin peeled from their

newest victim. But soon, realizing that Mr. Gruelle would be home later that night, Sandy

looked up at Sam and said, "Sam, I think we should start taking our things back to the shed. We

should start by cutting this one into sections.". "Oh, yes! Good thinking, Sandy. Good thinking!

If we had forgotten to get going, we would sooner be found out!" Sam rose with Sandy and the

two of them set to carving and hacking off limbs. Sandy began work chopping off one of the

arms at the shoulder and Sam began sawing away at the knee on the opposite leg.

They worked at it until their pile consisted of the Harlequin's remains, segmented legs,

segmented arms, hands, a torso and a head. "Phew!" Sam wiped his blood stained brow, "Now

we can begin moving it all. Hurry, as fast as you can, Sandy!" and he began to take a hand and a

foot and dragged them to the shed. Following suit, Sandy took up half of an arm and dragged

the head by the hair, since they had not yet skinned it. Things continued in this fashion until

Sam and Sandy, with their gruesome and unsightly collection, were safely hidden and locked

away again inside the shed, where they sat down to work on their quilt until Mr. Gruelle would

arrive.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Writing Your Own Demise

Dusk was setting in and from where they sat together with their quilt, Sam and Sandy

could see clusters of bright white little dots in the now magenta and orange sky. "Its getting

late…" Sandy complained, tossing aside a patch of flesh, a needle and her thread. Sam groaned.

"Yeah, I know… Where is that bastard, anyway? I thought he was just going to pick something

up and come on back…" he mumbled. A loud screech reverberated into the shed, making them

flinch. "What the hell was that?!" Sam yelled as he rose to his feet and motioned for Sandy to

follow him.

"Come on, Sand. You stand right here. I'll climb up on your shoulders and see what's been

making all that racket." he gestured towards a spot in front of one of the windows facing the

driveway. Sandy wanted to object. To tell him that she's a girl and he should be a gentleman

and let her stand on top, but she knew he would refuse to listen to her. So, she resolved to just

do as Sam told her and stood there while he clambered up and stood upon her shoulders to see

out of the window. "Well, what do you see?" she enquired, curiosity filling her voice. "He's

back…" Sam's hideous grin twisted back into it's former appearance as he whispered the news

zealously to Sandy. She looked up in disbelief with a "He's back?". After this reply, Sam was

wrestling with himself over mutilating some part of her again as punishment for her stupidity,

but before he could even begin to climb down, there was a sharp, loud, nearly primal scream

blasting through the air. Both twins locked eyes and grinned with nightmare-like airs. "He IS

back!" they both exclaimed at the exact same time.

Mr. Gruelle's heart had nearly stopped in it's tracks when he turned to see the frightful sight in

the kitchen. Several cabinets were swinging open, deep pools of blood dripped from every

precipice, the same was splattered everywhere, a hook was jammed into the ceiling and a

blood-stained noose lay in waiting like a snake on the tile floor. He quickly realized that he had

been screaming at the top of his lungs and covered his mouth. _Oh God! What if the neighbors _

_hear me? What will they think?!_ he reasoned with himself, trying to calm down enough to come

up with a plan of action. He had to think of something, and quick. The killer could be anywhere

around the house. So, Mr. Gruelle silently and quickly crept over to the nearest broom closet, in

which he had hidden a box of bullets and a small pistol in case a break-in would ever happen,

but he never imagined something so horrible as this would cause him to finally retrieve it.

Nervously, he stalked up the stairs, anxiety coursing through his whole being. He carefully

checked every room in the house and in about an hour, he was searching the outdoor premises,

paying very careful attention to detail in his surroundings. Watching from the window after

having stacked some boxes, Sam and Sandy giggled uncontrollably and fell over one another,

flailing and kicking about in the air. His anxious, nervous behavior only made them salivate that

much more for the kill. "He's… H-H-He's just so… So stupid!" Sandy tried to speak between

bouts of laughter and accidentally knocked off Sam's hat. Sam readjusted his hat back on his

head with a smile and shouted, "This… THIS is going to be the MOST fun we've EVER had, eh,

Sand?!". Sandy pushed him away playfully and squealed, "Oh, YES, Sam! Yes it wi-". The middle

of her sentence was cut short by the loud squeal of the old hinges on the door to the shed.

Sam took Sandy by the hand and dragged her down with him between the crates and

told her to shush. Mr. Gruelle cast a long, moonlit shadow across the floor of the cabin as the

wind rushed through and blew out every candle that they had lit in order to see. With this

creeping darkness, Mr. Gruelle was so nervous that instead of shouting out a warning to

anyone that may be hiding in there, and remembering that the neighbors were away on a trip,

he automatically shot a bullet into the night sky, and that was his only warning before the

silence. When he saw that nothing stirred, he figured that no one was hiding in there. That the

culprit had already escaped hours ago while he was still away from the house. But that didn't

mean that he would sleep soundly that night, oh no. He was fearful should the monster return

for him, and mourning for the loss of his wife and child.

Instead of staying out in the cold night air though, Mr. Gruelle thought he might at least go up

to his room and try to find some peace. As he closed the door, so the darkness closed in on the

dolls by the crates. A while later, Sam and Sandy stirred and peered out around a corner of one

of the crates. "I can't see anything!" Sandy whined in a loud whisper. "The candles blew out. All

we gotta do is light'em up again, ya dumb bitch…" Sam grumbled as he pushed her aside and

felt around for a match. When a candle was finally lit, Sandy saw something glinting silver in

the corner of her eye over by the door. "Sam! Look! Look! He dropped something!" she jumped

up and bolted over to pick it up and see what it was before Sam could get his hideous hands on

it. "I remember this!" she gasped, her old, cheery, happy voice returning to her for a split

second as she held it up in the light for Sam to see.

"My, oh, my! Mr. Gruelle must have dropped it when he ran away, An-!" Sam's face was

melting away and Raggedy Andy's original bright features were returning. But before the full

life force of the original doll returned, the demon coursed through his arms and rose a hand to

stifle his mouth midsentence, causing all of the color to bleed out and turn to puddles of blood

on the wooden floor. _No. I mustn't return to that silly old girl's toy I was back then!_ was the evil

thought that rushed through his mind as his twisted appearance slowly returned. Suddenly,

Sandy came nose to nose with him, looking at him with wonder and fear, her nose returned to

it's former bright, cheerful red, her yarn hair back to looking like cherry licorice. "Wha-What's

ha-happening ta-to-to y-you, A-A-A-And-" was all she could manage until, like him, the color on

her appearance was draining out as blood and dripping to the floor before him. Sam noticed

that at the same time both of them began changing, Sandy had first picked up the pen Mr.

Gruelle had dropped and as their color began to drain again, she weakly dropped the thing to

the floor. There was something important about that pen, and he had almost remembered it

when he was reverting… What was it?

Sandy was now looking at the pen with fear and awe, just sitting there, glinting in the

candlelight on the floor between them. "That pen… That pen has… the-the… power to… to

make us whatever it… chooses…" were the whispered utterances of Sandy while Sam was

finally the one to just stand there, dumbstruck. In a brief flashback moments ago, Sandy had

seen Mr. Gruelle happily writing at his desk when a young Marcella entered the room, Raggedy

Ann hanging from the crook of her arm. She seemed to ask Mr. Gruelle something and he

smiled as he looked about the room and then took Ann from Marcella, making her bow as if

introducing herself. Another flash of light and she had seen him busily writing a draft at that

very same desk, titled "Raggedy Ann Learns A Lesson". One more flash, and she could see he

was hunched over, busily scrawling on a draft paper that read in it's bold title, "Doctor Raggedy

Andy". All with that very same pen in his hand.

"So…" Sam rubbed his finger against his chin in thought, "Ya think that pen created us?". Sandy

nodded briskly, causing her yarn hair to bounce over her face. "Hmm… I have an idea." he

laughed darkly. "Me, too…" Sandy bubbled lightly, "If something can give life, it can take it back

just as much!". Sam and Sandy exclaimed this at the same time and nearly hugged each other

from excitement. Sandy hurried off and came back with a pair of metal tongs to pick up the

pen- if either one of them was to touch it again, it would surely make them revert once more.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gruelle was up in his study, at his desk with another pen in hand, trying to

think of something to write, something to distract himself and calm his mind. He soon decided

that it might ease his mind to try to write about his happiest memories with his family and

began to touch pen to paper. Unbeknownst to him, Sam and Sandy had already scurried across

the moon-bathed yard and into the house on the first floor. They weighed nearly nothing

because they were ragdolls, so they were very silent when sneaking up the stairs with the pen.

As they rounded the corner to his office, Mr. Gruelle placed his face in his hands as the stress of

the night began to overtake him. He did not know what he would possibly be able to do

without his loved ones, and was contemplating suicide.

The door behind him slowly creaked open and the sound should have sent shudders down his

spine. Instead, he only convulsed with a few sobs and spoke weakly, "Please… Just take me…

Life will not be worth it if I can't have my beautiful wife and daughter…", waving his arms about

in a pleading motion. Sam and Sandy both knew he was not behaving out of pure truth- they

could smell the terror and fear emanating from where he sat. Maybe it was true he wanted to

have his family back, but they knew that if he had been given the choice, he would not have

chosen to die for them if he could just have them brought back to him. But they did not care,

they were already much too hyped up on the blood lust to stop now.

Deftly and silently, they made their way from stacks of cabinets and boxes, all the way up on

top of a book shelf overlooking the man, his hands now tightly gripping and pulling on his dark

hair as he sobbed heavily. Dark tears were staining the document in front of him, titled "Fallen

On Raggedy Times". It appeared to be a poem in the works, but neither of the two twins cared

to ever read it. Sandy energetically leapt down with the tongs holding the pen in hand and just

as Mr. Gruelle went into brief shock, she thrust the point of the object down into one of his eye

sockets, starting a brief river and spout of blood that spilled out over the drenched papers

before him as he reeled back in pain, screaming and groping around. This, however, did not

stop her from plunging into the other eye socket with it, which caused Mr. Gruelle to fall to the

floor writhing and yelling.

Sam hopped down onto his chest and brashly snatched the pen from Sandy's tongs. He

hunched over, aiming for Mr. Gruelle's heart and began to use the tip of the pen to make crude

incisions through Mr. Gruelle's clothes and into his flesh. The pen was flickering with it's power

weakening and it was unable to stop either of the two attackers before fizzling out. Screams still

filled the room with horror as Sam repeatedly plunged the pen into his victim's chest and both

he and Sandy laughed aloud. Absolutely nothing could stop them now from doing whatever

they wished. Sandy herself had taken to shoving the rusty old tongs in through Mr. Gruelle's

forehead from behind, having her own fun making crude holes in his skull and doing what she

would have liked to call 'reworking his imagination'. Together, they were writing out their own

twisted path, merely using each of their victims as a chapter in their book, and Mr. Gruelle was

the final one, the grand finale.

Mr. Gruelle's blood soaked form finally ceased all animation when Sam had managed to gouge

out every organ he could find and toss them all into a huge pile. He arose, pen still in hand,

splattered with blood and hideous gore, intestines wrapped loosely around his feet as Sandy

stood on her feet, also splattered with blood, but unlike him, also covered from head to foot in

tiny, almost noodle like bits of brain. "The quilt is nearly complete. His contribution will be the

border which will surround our colorful patchwork… All encompassing… Our Creator." Sam

solemnly whispered, breathless, to Sandy. Sandy only nodded silently in return.


End file.
